Lyonia lucida

Shining Fetterbush (“lucida”) is a commonly encountered evergreen shrub of the south, 3-5 feet tall and wide (or occasionally taller), found mostly in counties of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains from Virginia south to Florida and west to Louisiana. The leaves are alternate, smooth, thick, and leathery. The sweetly fragrant spring flowers are urn-shaped, pink/white, hanging in clusters from the axils of the leaves all along the stems. Although in nature it is found in some dry habitats, it is much more often encountered in wet ones such as pocosins and bogs. Shining Fetterbush tolerates full sun with sufficient moisture, but thrives in partial sun to full shade with medium moisture requirements and moist, well drained soil. It reproduces by suckering, lending itself to forming an attractive evergreen hedge, and performing well in mixed shrub plantings. Mellichamp (Native Plants of the Southeast): “. . .one of the best evergreen shrubs we have tried (at UNC Botanical Gardens) . . . relatively unknown in cultivation and needs wider testing.”